If A Miracle Happens In A Forest…

Posted by Lake The Posts on Sunday, January 30, 2011 · 13 Comments

So there it was. I was in the North Woods of Wisconsin at a family 50th wedding anniversary. No TVs, barely a cell phone reception and the knowledge that likely a John Shurna-less ‘Cats team was facing the #1 team in the nation. The game had surely ended. I escaped from the party for a moment to find a cell zone to check the score. It was as peaceful as could be as a steady snowfall in a bucolic setting seemed to comfort what was about to be the realization that we lost by 40 or so. I scrolled down the ESPN feature on my Iphone. WHAT?!!! 58-57?!!! It must be a typo. Holy crap – we nearly beat the #1 team in the nation! What in God’s name happened?

So, on to the recap. So, it was the old school, Princeton offense of limiting possessions. Holy smokes, Juice went nuts in this game! Capocci stepped up big time – how the heck did he battle Sullinger and still manage 11 points? Wait – we had the ball – tied with :30 to go and didn’t get a shot off? Ugh. Sullinger was fouled and missed the front end of the 2-shot foul with 3.5 to go? Man, the pain is starting to seep in even though I had zero emotional ties to watching this game. My head was spinning of what the student section and the arena must have been like during the epic comeback. And alas, I sat there with empathy for Bill Carmody. How many times will the program get THAT close to THE moment and of course, fall THIS short. I somehow was able to rationalize how lucky I was to not endure the pain of the 16th consecutive loss (with no wins) against a #1. The allure of playing a #1 on national TV is always intoxicating. However, without our star, John Shurna, to come this close is a feat that I can’t understand.

Does this mean our team doesn’t bring it in the least on other nights? Was it a perfect storm of curveball tempo that kept us alive? Should we be resorting to it again on Saturday against Illinois? Will we ever get to enjoy the sweet taste of success for any prolonged period of time in this program? Man, I could not wish the journey of being an NU hoops fan upon my worst enemy. I was so proud of our program and Carmody some 7 hours away in the middle of nowhere. I screamed loudly in the snow insulated forest. I don’t think anyone heard it and I know no one cares. But we do.

Johnnies Rejoice

And in other hoops news, a day after our near upset, St. John’s trounced #3 Duke. All of a sudden that late December loss, which seemed like a runaway win until JerShon got bodyslammed, now looks like it would’ve been a big time significant win. And don’t look now, but our annual house of horrors trip to Penn State will be especially tough as the Nittany Lions slayed another Big Ten ranked opponent at home, this time Wisconsin on Saturday.

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NUfan22

I wish there was a photo or video of your face when you first saw the score… All I could think in my sadness, is that LTP is going to FLIP when he sees the score.
http://westlotpirates.wordpress.com/ Erik

Cats out-boarded OSU by 11 too. And hit most FTs (though Luka missed one late, that had Carmody seething). Key to D was a matchup zone that stopped their three-point shooting cold, but let Sullinger get his points (OSU one of best 3pt teams in country limited bigtime). Wilhite has a couple great articles in the Herald on all this.

When the dust settles on this season, the majority of fans may still think it’s time for BC to go, but don’t forget the excellent coaching job he did in this game, giving the Cats a chance against #1 against all odds.
wildcat6

@LTP

We were dead in the water until about 8:00 left, when we had a 7-point trip which could have been an 8-point trip. We hit a three and had a coinciding non-shooting intentional foul on Curletti. He made the first of two, then we took the ball and made another three.

That reduced the deficit from 12 to 5, I think. From there we had some clutch shooting and decent defense which allowed us to further close the gap and eventually take the lead.

As for my comments on Carmody in the prior thread, I have to confess that they are borne of frustration and simply how I see things at this point. It’s equally possible that my comments have no bearing on reality and that I know jack about basketball & the coaching profession and my comments are meaningless in general. This is just a forum for expression. Let’s face it folks, Phillips is not going to offer a contract extension in one breath, then fire the guy in the next. And maybe that’s for the best, I don’t know…

In any case, don’t beat yourself up, LTP. Family obligations rule, priorities in the right place, and all that. You’re not a fraud. I’m very grateful you run this site…
wildcat6

Just a thought? Is beating Penn State now a quality win? Is losing to MSU a “bad loss?”

We may have more opportunities ahead than we thought.
rb

Last time I checked, a moral victory still goes in the loss column. Moral victories don’t help us get a NCAA tourney bid.

And yes, while Carmody coached well enough against OSU to give us an opportunity to win, he hasn’t recruited players that could actually take advantage and win.
Frank

I was encouraged by Saturday. Welsh-Ryan was the loudest I’ve heard it, even louder than when we beat Michigan when most of the Fab Five were still with the team.

We lost the game, but the refs sure made it easy for OSU. We had 19 personal fouls, they had only 13. We had 11 free throws they had 20. Their people were throwing ours to the ground and the refs waved off any infraction but then Thompson or someone else who is not too big gets called for an elbow in the back against one of their big men who was backing into the paint.

Terrible job of officiating. The Big Ten has to look at, in both football and hoops, getting better officials.
TB

You can’t expect to draw many fouls when your offense consists of running a weave 30 feet from the basket for 25 seconds and then heaving a three (and that’s not a criticism of the strategy).
Wildcat86

Looks like the Springer hiring if official (according to Rittenberg)…

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/22997/northwestern-to-name-springer-assistant
SupaKat

im still tired of carmody, and i have a feeling that if we keep losing bowl games and games that we should win, people will start to tire of fitz. i love fitz now, but sooner or later, if we want to be relevant in the football, we need to act like it

i wish our to St. John’s actually meant something.

i heard boos for Carmody on Saturday, first time i’ve heard that. and this “moral victory” doesn’t mean anything if we play terribly on saturday on NATIONAL television
http://www.westlotpirates.wordpress.com Erik

Penn state is definitely a quality matchup — they are now top-50 in RPI. MSU won’t fall into the “bad loss” category – they’d need to fall quite far for that to happen (still top 40 in RPI).
Paul

There was a point in the second half where the officiating was pretty poor. I remember a sequence of plays were Sullinger cleared out with his elbow to Davide’s face and Davide got called for the foul, followed by another play where Sullinger blatantly went over Marcotullio’s back for a board. Those non-calls were inexcusable, but outside of that I thought the officiating was ok.

And Erik, I won’t forget BC’s coaching against Ohio State if you don’t forget his coaching in all of the losses this season (including the embarassing blowout loss to Wisconsin at home). A coach should not be judged by individual game performances but by his overall record. Hell, if he could put up performances anywhere close to this on a consistent basis I would love him. But he’s shown over his 11 years that he can’t.
CSCat

I thought there were moral victories when in the world of RPI. Isn’t it beter to lose by one to OSU than beat Chicago State by 15?
CSCat

I thought there were moral victories in the world of RPI. Isn’t it beter to lose by one to OSU than beat Chicago State by 15?

2013 NU Football Schedule

Date	Opponent	Result
08/31/2013	at California - TBA TBA	-
09/07/2013	Syracuse - BTN 5:00PM	-
09/14/2013	Western Michigan - BTN 8:00PM	-
09/21/2013	Maine (FCS) - TBA TBA	-
10/05/2013	Ohio State - ABC/ESPN OR ESPN2 7:00PM	-
10/12/2013	at Wisconsin - TBA TBA	-
10/19/2013	Minnesota - TBA TBA	-
10/26/2013	at Iowa - TBA TBA	-
11/02/2013	at Nebraska - TBA TBA	-
11/16/2013	Michigan - TBA TBA	-
11/23/2013	Michigan State - TBA TBA	-
11/30/2013	at Illinois - TBA TBA	-

2012 NU Football Schedule

Date	Opponent	Result
09/01/2012	at Syracuse - ESPN2 11:00AM - Highlights	42 - 41
09/08/2012	Vanderbilt - BTN 7:00PM - Highlights	23 - 13
09/15/2012	Boston College - BTN 2:30PM - Highlights	22 - 13
09/22/2012	South Dakota (FCS) - BTN 2:30PM - Highlights	38 - 7
09/29/2012	Indiana - BTN 11:00AM - Highlights	44 - 29
10/06/2012	at Penn State - ESPN 11:00AM	28 - 39
10/13/2012	at Minnesota - ESPN2 11:00AM - Highlights	21 - 13
10/20/2012	Nebraska - ABC 2:30PM	28 - 29
10/27/2012	Iowa - ESPN2 11:00AM - Highlights	28 - 17
11/10/2012	at Michigan - ESPN 11:00AM	31 - 38
11/17/2012	at Michigan State - ESPN2 11:00AM - Highlights	23 - 20
11/24/2012	Illinois - BTN 11:00AM - Highlights	50 - 14
01/01/2013	Mississippi State - ESPN2 Gator Bowl 11:00AM - Highlights	34 - 20

If A Miracle Happens In A Forest…

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